A 

MAN'S 
FAITH 


WILFRED 

T. 

GRENFELI 
M.D. 


HERE,  HOWEVER,  1  MUST 
STATE  MY  DEEPEST  CON- 
VICTION THAT  ABSOLUTELY 
THE  ONLY  ESSENTIAL 
INITIAL  ASSETS  ARE 
DEVOTION  TO  JESUS  CHRIST 
AND  COMMON  SENSE,  IF 
YOU  WISH  TO  BE  A  SUC- 
CESSFUL WORKER  IN  THE 
KINGDOM 


FAITH  IS  A  KIND  OF  TRUST 

THAT  MAKES  ONE    PUT   HIS 

BOTTOM  DOLLAR   INTO  A 

SCHEME.     IT    IS    NOT    MERE 

INTELLECTUAL    ASSENT.     IT 

IS    THAT    PARTICULAR 

MOTIVE    POWER   WHICH 

MAKES  A  MAN  GIVE  HIMSELF 

AND    EVERYTHING    HE   HAS 

TO   FOLLOW  JESUS 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


A   MAN'S    FAITH 


I 


To  them  gave  He  power  to  become 
sons  of  God,  even  to  them  that 
BELIEVE  on  His  name 


A    MAN'S    FAITH 


BY 


WILFRED   T.  GRENFELL,  M.D.  (OxoN.) 

Superintendent  Labrador  Medical  Mission 


THE  PILGRIM  PRESS 

BOSTON         NEW  YORK        CHICAGO 


Copyright,  1908 
BY  LUTHER  H.  CART 


I 


THE  •  PLIMPTON  •  PRESS 

[  W  •  D  •  o] 
MOKWOOD  .  MASS  .  V  •  S  .  A 


BT 
TTl 


A  MAN'S  FAITH 


I.    HOW    TO    OBTAIN    FAITH    IN 
JESUS   CHRIST 

W  HAT  most  men  want  is  knowledge,  but 
I  am  speaking  of  faith,  though,  if  I  am  not  mis- 
taken, there  is  little  outside  the  science  of  num- 
bers that  is  not  really  faith.  We  eat,  sleep,  work, 
and  do  everything  by  faith.  The  clearest  idea 
I  have  of  it  I  get  from  the  letter  to  the  Hebrews. 
It  is  something  which  makes  a  man  give  "sub- 
stance to  things  hoped  for."  It  is  the  kind  of 
trust  that  makes  one  put  his  bottom  dollar  into 
a  scheme.  It  is  not  mere  intellectual  assent.  It 
is  that  particular  motive  power  which  makes  a 
man  give  himself  and  everything  he  has  to  fol- 
low Jesus. 

The  first  thought  that  rises  to  one's  mind 
is  that  this  is  palpably  a  silly  thing  to  do, 
that  it  is  an  act  of  superstition  or  credulity 
to  act  so  unreservedly  on  an  hypothesis.  This 
keeps  many  men  from  taking  the  step.  Yet 
the  world  is  run  by  faith  in  premises,  and  suc- 
cess is  won  in  every  branch  in  proportion  as 
men  act,  and  act  most  promptly  on  their  faith. 
This  hindrance  to  faith,  therefore,  is  a  false  one. 
I  believe,  with  Paul,  that  ours  is  a  perfectly 
reasonable  faith.  In  things  material,  in  things 
intellectual,  in  things  spiritual,  faith  is  the 


1363578 


power  every  time  that  buoys  men  up,  and  makes 
them  float  on  the  top  in  life's  ocean.  That  is 
why  young  men  are  the  successful  heads  of  so 
many  of  the  largest  business  concerns  in  the 
world.  They  will  venture  more  on  faith  than 
the  old  fellows,  who  either  "  think  they  know," 
or  "  want  to  know  more  before,"  and  by  that 
time  the  chance  has  gone  by. 


K      WHAT  SCIENTISTS  AND  STATESMEN  RELY  ON 


Through  faith  men  of  science  became  New- 
tons,  Faradays,  Darwins,  Fultons,  Marconis. 
Men  like  these  have  faith  in  theories  and  confirm 
them  by  achievement  and  experiment.  Accord- 
ing to  Paul,  that  is  how  Abraham  and  men  like 
him  did  many  things  worth  doing.  Certainly 
Washington  and  Lincoln,  Gordon  and  Living- 
ston, Luther  and  Garibaldi,  and  such  men  of 
action,  were  primarily  men  of  faith.  Above  all 
else  Jesus  himself  is  the  supreme  example  of  a 
man  of  faith.  Even  on  his  cross  he  was  confi- 
dent, when,  as  far  as  any  one  human  could  see, 
his  faith  in  his  success  was  absolutely  unjusti- 
fiable. In  every-day  social  life  the  same  thing  is 
true.  The  really  loved  in  social  life  are  those 
who  have  faith  in  others,  and  that  even  against 
odds.  If  the  love  of  others  and  not  their  sham 
praise  is  the  goal  of  social  life,  then  faith  again 
is  the  factor  in  its  achievement. 

Again,  that  which  really  succeeds  cannot  be 
altogether  foolish.  That  which  makes  men  do 
things  is  not  to  be  sneered  away  because  we  do 
not  altogether  apprehend  it.  So  in  other  de- 
partments of  life,  we  can't  deny  what  we  don't 
understand,  even  if  we  want  to.  I  have  been 


reading  of  the  treatment  of  the  adult  criminals 
in  Cleveland,  and  of  the  Juvenile  Court  of 
Denver.  The  idea  of  effecting  the  reform  of 
the  worst  criminals  and  outcasts  by  removing 
all  restraint  from  them  and  putting  faith  in 
them  looked  dangerously  like  credulity.  But 
as  a  remedial  element  in  punishment,  which 
is  the  real  object  of  all  punishment,  faith  has 
proved  itself  far  and  away  the  most  practical 
factor. 


ITS  TRANSFORMING  TOUCH 

These  illustrations  could  be  carried  further. 
But  I  will  satisfy  myself  by  saying  that  simple 
faith  in  Christ  as  the  Son  of  God  seems  to  me 
to  have  been  the  father  of  action,  and  that  in 
the  right  direction  always.  Its  results  have 
been  obscured  by  the  dilution  of  the  simplicity 
of  it.  But  the  experience  of  the  passing  years 
clinches  in  my  mind  ever  more  firmly  the  con- 
viction that  nothing  succeeds  in  transforming 
the  individual  like  it.  Nothing  is  so  practical 
and  potent  a  power  as  this  faith  for  making 
bad  men  into  good  ones,  and  good  men  into  more 
useful  ones.  "  The  life  which  I  live,"  Paul  said, 
"  I  live  by  faith  in  the  Son  of  God,"  and  I  con- 
sider Paul  lived  a  more  useful  life  than  any  man 
of  his  time  in  inducing  righteousness,  joy,  and 
peace  into  a  moribund  world,  a  triumphant  life, 
a  life  I  could  consider  a  success,  a  life  I  should 
be  only  too  glad  to  look  back  on  or  to  take  a 
record  of  with  me  wherever  I  go. 

I  do  not  forget,  however,  that  not  all  men 
gauge  success  in  the  same  way.  Though  if  they 
stopped  and  thought  more  I  believe  they  would 


be  much  more  unanimous  on  that  point,  and  that 
then  dollars  would  not  loom  quite  so  large. 
Therefore  I  consider  my  faith  a  practical  thing, 
not  a  foolish  one. 

Nay,  more,  I  own  to  considering  it  a  desir- 
able thing,  and  I  presume  I  must  thereby  be  con- 
tent to  write  myself  down  a  prejudiced  witness 
henceforth.  Yet  I  do  not  consider  this  a  stulti- 
fying statement.  I  want  to  believe  in  Jesus 
•D  Christ  because  I  want  to  attain  the  ends  I  know 

tsuch  a  faith  insures.  I  consider  faith,  as  Peter 
did,  "  a  precious  thing."  I  believe  it  can  make 
me  master  of  myself  and  of  the  world,  as  John 
did.  I  do  not  expect  it  to  be  based  on  the  wis- 
dom of  to-day  altogether.  I  believe  with  Paul 
that  it  is  well  based,  "  not  on  the  wisdom  of 
men,  but  on  the  power  of  God,"  which  I  see  it 
exemplify.  Where  would  it  have  been  if  based 
on  the  wisdom  of  Paul's  day  ?  As  he  most  wisely 
said,  "  Our  knowledge  is  incomplete."  "  It  will 
be  cast  aside." 


BOOKS  YIELD  TO  LIFE 

Books  of  miracles  resulting  from  faith,  even 
the  New  Testament  itself,  must,  with  the  lapse 
of  time  lose  ability  to  convince  men  of  the  value 
of  that  faith  to-day  amongst  them,  if  they  are 
unaccompanied  by  any  evidence  of  its  power  to 
reproduce  them.  The  preachers  may  spend 
ages  proving  the  authenticity  of  the  Gospels, 
but  if  I  never  saw  and  never  heard  of  any  mani- 
festation of  the  power  of  faith  in  Jesus  Christ, 
it  would  not  make  me  believe.  The  preachers 
may  prove  faith  in  Christ  made  Simons  into 
Peters,  Sauls  into  Pauls,  and  Stephens  into 


[9] 

heroes  in  the  first  century.  But  the  ever- 
widening  gap  of  time  since  these  magnificent  re- 
sults were  achieved  by  it  makes  it  ever  grow  less 
potent  as  an  evidence  of  the  desirability  of  my 
having  a  like  faith.  What  we  want  to  know  is, 
"  Is  this  faith  doing  these  things  to-day?  "  The 
preacher  that  appeals  and  will  convince  men  of 
sin,  and  the  need  of  our  having  this  faith,  is  a 
man  in  whom  we  see  these  miracles  have  been 
wrought  again  by  the  same  power.  He  may  be 
an  orator,  philosopher,  theologian,  or  clergy- 
man. He  very  often  is  not.  But  a  man  whom 
we  personally  know  and  who  has  been  made  into 
a  new  creature  out  of  an  old  one,  makes  that 
individual  appeal  which  was  in  the  first  century 
Christ's  own  way,  and  is,  I  believe,  in  the  twen- 
tieth century  still  Christ's  way  of  extending  his 
kingdom. 

It  is  not  so  easy  a  way  as  talking,  but  it  is 
undeniable.  Men  who  have  been  made  simple, 
brave,  unselfish,  cheerful,  hard  workers,  reli- 
able, Christlike  men,  if  day  laborers  "  only," 
are  Christ's  most  effectual  appeal  to  twentieth 
century  men.  The  man  of  unconquerable  faith 
like  Christ's  own  faith,  breeds  faith,  and  the  man 
of  unconquerable  faith  is  the  man  who  knows 
what  that  faith  has  done  for  himself.  He  is  not 
always  a  scholar,  and  his  faith  does  not  always 
stand  on  twentieth  century  wisdom.  But  his 
will  be  the  j  oy  of  that  success  without  which  one 
would  expect  preaching  to  be  a  prelude  to  in- 
sanity or  despair. 

Jesus  and  his  contemporaries  do  not  seem  to 
have  laid  much  stress  on  the  book  line  of  evidence 
either.  With  them  "  the  Word  was  made  fle»h, 
and  dwelt  among  us."  He  and  they  left  the 


future  of  the  faith  they  themselves  gave  their 
own  lives  to  promulgate,  to  the  evidences  of  its 
ever-living  power  in  those  who  should  accept  it 
in  the  succeeding  ages. 

So  I  say  I  want  this  faith  as  a  result  of  rea- 
sonably looking  at  it,  and  after  many  years  I 
want  more  of  it,  and  am  exceedingly  glad  for 
what  I  have  of  it;  just  as  I  want  to  see  my 
dogs  well  fed  before  leaving  on  a  long  sleigh 
journey,  because  I  know  that  will  make  them 
able  to  go  ahead. 

THE  REAL  VERSUS  THE  FORMAL 

Superstition  or  credulity  make  some  men  act. 
But  very  likely  in  the  wrong  direction,  if  they 
happen  to  be  headed  wrong.  When  a  young 
man  I  used  to  spend  my  long  vacation  in  a  fish- 
ing smack,  which  I  hired  and  went  skipper  of 
with  a  crew  of  amateurs.  We  had  been  trying 
to  beat  all  one  day  out  of  a  dangerous  bay  on 
the  Welsh  coast  against  a  head  wind  and  weather 
tide,  and  we  were  by  no  means  out  of  danger 
when  at  night  I  turned  over  the  watch  to  a  col- 
league. Happening  to  come  on  deck  later  I 
found  no  one  at  the  wheel,  and  Bishop's  Rock 
Light  uncomfortably  close  under  our  lee.  My 
friend  was  forward  having  a  smoke,  and  his 
excuse  was :  "  Oh,  let  the  old  ship  go  where  she 
likes.  She  '11  be  all  right  by  morning."  I  have 
said  he  was  an  amateur,  but  I  had  not  counted 
on  his  "  faith."  It  was  not  an  uncommon  form 
of  faith,  but  I  preferred  to  turn  to  and  take  the 
wheel  myself,  for  I  had  no  faith  in  his  kind  of 
faith.  It  was  plainly  a  different  thing,  less 
practical  and  desirable  for  leading  to  the  haven 
where  we  would  be  than  the  kind  of  faith  which 


[11] 

I  know  from  experience  is  so  valuable  on  the 
sea  of  life. 

Looking  back  over  one's  life  and  trying  to 
draw  deductions,  one  discovers  terrible  failures, 
terribly  wrong  views  of  things,  and  of  their 
values  and  their  effects.  But  without  any  cant 
or  emotional  reasoning  it  seems  to  me  the  things 
one  is  glad  to  have  done  have  always  been  the 
result  of  faith  —  faith  which  has  been  by  no 
means  sight,  but  faith  in  the  Son  of  God,  in 
Christ  as  the  Saviour  of  the  world  to  be.  So  my 
reason  argues  that  if  that  faith  is  the  redemp- 
tion and  salvation  of  the  life  that  now  is,  it  will 
serve  as  a  premise  to  enter  the  next  life  with, 
whatever  or  wherever  that  may  be.  So  as  that 
is  certainly  "  a  thing  hoped  for,"  I  try  "  to  give 
all  I  can  to  it,"  i.  e.,  I  have  faith  in  it. 


WHERE  KNOWLEDGE   is   NOT   ESSENTIAL 

It  is  true  I  don't  know  how  to  explain  the 
individuality  of  the  soul,  or  its  persistence. 
I  do  not  know  what  will  be  the  punishment  of 
sin.  To  me,  certainly,  it  always  seems  to  be 
punished.  Nor,  for  the  matter  of  that,  do  I  see 
the  justice  of  an  eternal  reward  for  temporary 
service.  But  these  things  do  not  worry  me,  as 
they  are  not  immediately  pressing,  and  I  have 
every  reason  to  suppose  my  intellect  is  not  yet 
able  to  understand  all  these  details,  much  as 
they  interest  me.  To  me  death  seems  (with 
Newman  Smyth)  like  birth,"  only  another  crisis 
in  the  continuous  history  of  life."  For  I  see  it 
is  commonly  very  slight  changes  of  circum- 
stances, in  what  we  call  "  nature,"  that  make 
vast  differences  and  induce  entirely  new  series 


[12] 

of  actions,  for  instance,  a  drop  of  water  becom- 
ing ice  or  steam.  Our  life  on  the  Labrador  coast 
leaves  little  opportunity  for  speculation  on  these 
points,  and  I  am  waiting  for  some  one  else  to 
find  out  and  teach  me  more  about  them.  One 
thing  my  faith  does  for  me  here  which  I  con- 
sider desirable  —  it  assures  me  that  the  regula- 
tion of  these  puzzles  is  under  far  better  and 
wiser  guidance  than  mine. 

So  that  in  these  directions  also  faith  induces 
a  contented  mind  and  a  peace  that  passes 
"  understanding." 

Not  every  soul  can  be  lost  that  does  not  pos- 
sess a  cut  and  dried  opinion  or  faith  on  every 
subject.  For  instance,  the  Bible  promises  a 
special  blessing  to  any  one  who  understands 
aright  the  book  of  Revelation.  Some  will  say, 
"  That  seems  reasonable,  because  it  is  so  very 
hard  to  understand."  Well,  I  would  like  to 
understand  it,  but  I  confess  I  don't.  I  am  curi- 
ous at  times  to  know  what  it  all  means.  Pos- 
sibly it  would  make  it  easier  for  me  to  be  more 
keen  and  diligent  in  my  service.  It  might  give 
my  faith  a  firmer  foundation.  It  would  cer- 
tainly be  a  mental  triumph,  and  that  is  itself 
a  blessing.  But  at  present  it  is  denied  me,  and 
I  must  muddle  along  without  it,  walking  by 
faith  as  far  as  this  subject  is  concerned  till  its 
pages  are  unfolded  to  me. 

When  considerably  younger  I  was  invited  to 
a  big  breakfast  at  which  were  the  chief  speakers 
at  a  great  missionary  conference  in  the  city. 
During  the  ceremony  a  certain  talker  leaned 
across  the  table  and  asked  me  whether  I  was  a 
premillennialist.  I  was  considerably  embar- 
rassed, as  this  was  one  of  my  still-in-the-fog  sub- 


[13] 

jects.  Being  young  and  not  anxious  to  give 
myself  away,  I  replied,  "  I  am  inclined  at  pres- 
ent to  agree  with  Dr. ,"  who  was  sitting  on 

my  questioner's  right.  I  did  not  think  he  would 
venture  on  a  squabble,  as  the  Doctor  was  sup- 
posed to  be  an  expert  on  those  lines,  and  I  had 
no  reason  to  suppose  he  was  further  astray  on 
that  particular  point  than  anyone  else.  To 
obtain  faith  we  must  work  along  without  "  all 
knowledge."  We  shall  know,  Christ  says,  if  we 
work.  It  is  not  reasonable  to  expect  to  know 
everything  first,  and  to  wait  for  that  desirable 
consummation  before  we  begin  to  commit  our- 
selves to  work. 

This  makes  me  believe  that  a  good  deal  of 
so-called  science  is  only  deck  hamper,  which  is  a 
danger  to  any  ship.  My  own  mission  steamer 
is  often  top-heavy  with  loads  of  logs  on  deck 
for  the  hospital  fires,  and  she  always  then  makes 
less  progress.  And  top-heavy  a  lot  of  good 
men  are,  and  a  lot  of  other  good  men  want  to 
be ;  at  least,  so  it  seems  to  me. 

God  forbid  that  this  should  appear  to  be  a 
plea  for  indolence,  or  a  justification  of  intellec- 
tual idleness  in  matters  that  concern  our  future 
life.  That  would  be  as  great  a  sin  as  counsel- 
ing young  men  to  neglect  study  and  trust  to 
chance  for  success  in  life  so  long  as  they  pos- 
sessed a  blind  faith.  This  is,  on  the  contrary, 
a  plea  for  working  and  learning  thereby  in  the 
best  school  I  know  —  the  school  of  experience. 

Nor  is  it  an  expression  of  fear  of  "  high  " 
or  other  kind  of  honest  criticism,  i.  e.,  research. 
"  There  is  more  faith  in  honest  doubt  than  in 
half  the  creeds,"  and  honest  doubt  needs  an  in- 
tellectual as  well  as  a  physical  process  of  treat- 


[14] 

ment.  "  Be  ready  to  give  a  reason  for  your 
faith  "  needs  mental  application.  Christ  never 
opposed  faith  to  reason,  but  gave  it  as  a  rem- 
edy for  the  impossibility  of  walking  by  sight. 
"  Come,  let  us  reason,"  is  one  Bible  invitation 
to  show  twentieth  century  men  the  way  to  faith. 


VERDICT  OF  THE  OPEN  MINI> 

The  first  method  of  obtaining  faith  that  ap- 
peals to  me  is  to  inquire  with  unprejudiced 
mind:  What  has  faith  led  to  in  history  and  in 
one's  personal  experience  ?  Has  it  led  to  wealth  ? 
Faithful  following  of  the  Christ,  which  is  faith, 
does  not  leave  a  man  begging  his  bread  in  these 
days,  any  more  than  did  godliness  in  David's 
day.  The  fact  that  the  love  of  riches  is  a  snare 
to  many  does  not  make  the  Bible  deny  that  god- 
liness is  profitable.  Moreover,  though  Christ 
considered  their  possessions  a  responsibility,  he 
never  anywhere  said  that  rich  men  could  not  be 
his  followers  and  remain  rich. 

Power?  Yes.  There  can  be  no  question 
Christ's  men  are  master  men  in  the  best  possible 
meaning  of  the  word.  I  should  say  without  any 
hesitation  that  in  every  field  to-day  everywhere, 
true  following  of  Christ,  that  is,  faith,  always 
lands  a  man  on  top. 

Praise  of  men?  Certainly.  There  cannot  be 
any  denying  the  fact  that  the  judgment  of  the 
twentieth  century  certainly  will  acclaim  always 
the  man  who  is  faithful  to  Jesus  Christ  and  his 
teachings.  It  has  no  use  for  trimmers,  and  we 
may  take  it  for  our  comfort.  The  world's  real 
opinion  does  not  make  many  mistakes.  The  but- 
terfly, animal-passion-satisfying,  self-indulgent, 


1 


[15] 

money-grabbing  people  are  not  the  world,  thank 
God. 

Pleasure?  Who  will  deny  that  truest  pleas- 
ure is  lasting  pleasure?  Who  will  deny  to  the 
true  followers  of  the  Christ  among  their  ac- 
quaintances the  possession  of  the  best  part,  i.  e., 
the  most  soul-satisfying  pleasure?  Look  at 
their  faces. 

Health?  Since  I  am  a  doctor,  the  very  query 
makes  me  smile.  Superstition  does  not  give 
health.  But  Christ-following  does.  Can  we 
ever  think  of  the  Christ  suffering  the  conse- 
quences of  indiscretions  for  breach  of  health 
laws  ? 

Without  going  further  I  should  say  that  the 
evidence  of  history  and  biography  is  that  faith 
is  profitable.  The  evidence  of  my  own  observa- 
tions and  that  of  others  indorses  that  convic- 
tion. The  experiences  of  my  own  faith  —  feeble 
as  it  has  been,  afford  me  a  testimony  I  cannot 
escape  from,  that  the  trial  of  it  in  action  jus- 
tifies all  the  claim  Christ  made  for  it.  I  am, 
therefore,  convinced  it  renders  mighty  works 
possible,  and  I  want  it. 

A  DAY  WITH  MR.  MOODY 

In  1883  I  chanced  to  turn  in  to  one  of  D.  L. 
Moody's  great  tent  meetings  in  the  slums  of 
East  London.  I  was  amazed  to  see  on  the  plat- 
form with  him  several  men  whose  athletic  prow- 
ess was  world-famous.  That  was  a  credential 
to  me  that  it  was  worth  stopping  to  listen  to 
what  was  going  to  be  said.  I  still  believe  ath- 
letic success  is  an  invaluable  asset  to  a  preacher. 
Christ,  I  am  sure,  wants  football,  baseball,  and 


[16] 

track  team  men  in  an  age  when  theological 
expositions,  however  deep  and  learned,  when 
orthodoxy,  conventionality,  or  even  correct 
vestments  and  ritual,  have  so  little  attraction 
for  the  young  men  who  shall  be  leaders  to- 
morrow. 

I  stayed,  listened,  and  learned  at  once  one 
thing:  that  if  I  had  any  faith  it  was  not  the 
kind  these  men  possessed.  As  far  as  I  could 
judge  I  possessed  an  unreal,  spectral  resem- 
blance of  the  genuine  article,  strong  enough  to 
keep  me  from  wanting  anything  better.  I  would 
always  attend  a  place  of  worship  to  please  any 
one  who  wished  me  to,  rather  than  be  conscious 
of  offending  them.  But  my  faith  must  have 
been  the  nearest  resemblance  to  a  Grand  Bank 
fog  that  anything  in  that  line  can  be.  For  it 
began  and  ended  nowhere,  and  helped  nobody, 
except  to  get  adrift  on  the  ocean,  and  hopelessly 
lose  sight  of  everything.  I  can  honestly  say 
I  had  all  my  life  been  a  more  or  less  regular 
attendant  at  Sunday  church  services.  But  the 
numberless  parsons  I  had  listened  to  had  never 
succeeded  in  teaching  me  that  God  gave  us  faith 
as  a  potent  factor  in  life  to  enable  us  to  do 
things,  and  therefore  that  I  should  expect  direct 
results  from  it.  I  can  scarcely  believe  they  ever 
tried  hard  to  do  this,  or  at  any  rate  were  dis- 
appointed in  any  way  at  their  lack  of  success, 
as  their  Master  certainly  says  he  will  be.  I 
learned  at  that  meeting  that  what  the  men  who 
spoke  possessed  was  a  faith  worthy  of  strong 
men,  and  I  went  out  into  those  sordid  slums 
knowing  I  wanted  it. 

Now  that  is  certainly  the  first  step  to  get- 
ting anything.  It  is  the  attitude  of  mind  we 


#1 

1 


[17] 

must  come  in  if  we  are  to  obtain  any  valuable 
thing.  Men  often  come  seeking  faith  as  they 
did  of  old,  demanding  a  special  portent  for 
themselves.  That  is,  they  begin  by  saying,  "  If 
you  don't  convince  my  mind  of  such  and  such  a 
thing  I  'm  going  to  accept  none  of  your  faith." 
Things  valuable  are  not,  as  a  rule,  picked  up  in 
this  world  in  that  way.  A  farmer,  after  listen- 
ing to  a  long  temperance  lecture,  soliloquized  as 
follows :  "  T'  preacher  proved  it  were  n't  no 
good  to  no  one,  and  he  proved  it  done  a  lot  o* 
harm  to  every  one,  but  he  did  not  prove  I  did 
not  like  '  un,'  so  I  means  to  have  *  un '  after 
all." 


THE   ARGUMENT   OF  A  LIFE 

How  are  men  to  learn  to  want  this  faith? 
For  four  years  at  college  I  lived  with  an  able 
lecturer  of  the  Christian  Evidence  Society. 
Many  of  his  debates  with  unbelievers  I  attended. 
I  cannot  remember  a  single  one  being  led  to  faith 
through  these  debates,  though  some  who  had 
faith  already  were  strengthened  in  it.  On  the 
other  hand,  I  remember  well  how  the  loving,  un- 
selfish ministrations  of  a  Salvation  Army  lass, 
who  attended  one  of  the  most  vehement  of  his 
opponents  when  he  was  sick  and  forgotten, 
brought  that  man  to  a  lively  faith  that  made 
a  new  man  of  him.  His  intellect  was  no  longer 
a  stumbling-block.  His  heart  was  won.  In- 
tellectual humility  is  an  essential  stepping-stone 
to  faith.  If  my  mind  fails  to  understand  the 
"  how  "  and  "  why,"  I  do  not  dream  of  denying 
the  possibility  of  a  solution  being  found  on  that 
ground.  The  advancing  years  are  ceaselessly 


[  18] 

teaching  me  new  things,  and  faith  tells  me 
that  one  day  "  I  shall  know  even  as  I  am 
known." 


THE  CHRISTIAN  EXPERIMENT 

To  learn  to  value  anything  about  which  we 
are  not  willing  to  take  other  men's  opinions,  we 
must  try  them  for  ourselves.  This  process  may 
go  on  unconsciously,  and  not  all  men  know  the 
moment  that  their  intellect  was  convinced,  or 
their  will  yielded.  I  have  known  men  who  never 
had  the  experience  of  a  settled  date  that  they 
would  point  to.  But  those  very  men  were  giving 
their  all  to  faith,  and  were  men  of  faith,  "  a 
faith  of  which  they  needed  not  to  be  ashamed." 
They  have  a  full  right  to  the  joy  and  peace  it 
brings. 

What,  then,  is  the  really  greatest  hindrance 
to  the  acceptance  of  faith?  Surely  it  is  the  con- 
temptible following  of  so  many  of  us,  who  pro- 
fess to  possess  it,  men  who  arrogate  orthodoxy 
to  themselves,  and  who  try  to  strengthen  their 
position  by  shouting  at  others,  instead  of  work- 
ing honestly  and  whole-heartedly  in  the  vine- 
yard. These  poor  advertisements  are  widely 
read.  No  one  would  want  to  risk  becoming  like 
them. 

Are  you  seeking  faith?  How  are  you  to  get 
it?  Eve  saw  the  apple.  Eve  saw  it  was  good. 
Eve  wanted  it.  So  she  just  put  out  her  hand 
and  took  it.  The  poor  fisherman  was  washed 
over  the  side.  Somehow  his  captain  saw  him 
struggling  in  the  dark  waters  and  threw  him  a 
life-buoy  that  would  save  him.  Still  he  had  to 
reach  out  his  hand  and  take  it. 


fi  u 

* 

I 


[19] 

To  sum  up  faith  in  Christ.  It  is  reasonable. 
It  is  practical.  It  is  desirable.  Its  results  are 
its  own  appeal.  It  is  unreasonable  to  demand 
exact  knowledge  of  every  detail  in  terms  of  the 
science  of  to-day.  The  best  school  for  under- 
standing more  of  it  is  that  of  experience.  In 
history,  in  the  lives  of  others,  and  in  our  own, 
we  can  see  that  it  has  always  justified  its  claims. 
Its  nobility,  its  true  manliness,  are  absolutely 
undeniable.  When  the  Master  says  "  Come," 
what  reason  can  I  advance  for  refusal?  Shall 
not  here  and  now  say,  "  I  will  "? 


II.    HOW    TO    USE    FAITH 

1  HE  mistake  about  the  use  of  faith  is  the 
worst  mistake  in  the  world.  It  makes  young 
manhood  despise  faith.  We  mix  up  the  use  of 
faith  with  black  coats,  clerical  collars,  monkish 
\A  gowns.  We  think  of  the  life  of  faith  as  unnum- 
bered religious  services,  convent  or  monastic 
practices,  refraining  from  cards,  theaters,  wines, 
smoking,  swearing,  etc.  We  think  of  the 
"  soul's  awakening "  as  a  desire  to  cross  the 
hands  on  the  chest,  and  turn  up  the  eyes  and 
carry  a  large  book  about,  and  probably  wear  a 
long  gown  like  a  Chinese  woman's,  ill  adapted 
for  easy  movement  and  exceedingly  undesirable. 
We  think  of  the  perfected  life  in  heaven  as  en- 
cumbered with  halos  and  white  nightgowns  and 
wings  on  our  backs,  and  our  probable  occupa- 
tion as  being  eternal  hymn-singing  or  harp- 
playing. 


It  seems  impious  to  think  of  wearing  rational 
dress,  of  baseball,  of  swimming,  boating,  or  of 
doing  anything  else  we  really  enjoy,  in  heaven. 
Thus  we  associate,  in  a  dumb  sort  of  a  way,  the 
use  of  faith  here  below  with  abstinence  from 
everything  the  healthy  young  human  animal 
naturally  loves,  and  with  the  infliction  of  num- 
berless exercises  that  he  hates.  We  stimulate 
him  to  voluntarily  endure  these  by  the  prospects 


I 


[21] 

of  a  future  that  we  paint  as  even  still  more  dis- 
tasteful. How  often  I  have  thought  I  would 
far  sooner  not  be  wakened  out  of  my  grave  if 
I  had  to  listen  to  everlasting  harp-playing.  I 
have  looked  at  the  goody-goody  pictures,  I 
have  read  the  goody-goody  books.  I  have 
hoped  I  would  not  have  to  lead  a  lamb  about 
by  a  string. 

With  all  the  boys  of  my  acquaintance,  we 
hated  going  to  church.  I  have  made  my  nose 
bleed  more  than  once  to  escape  evening  services, 
and  had  headache  and  made  excuses  all  I  dared 
to  escape.  My  brother  was  flogged  for  melting 
toffee  on  the  hot-water  pipes  in  church ;  we  left 
some  of  the  silver  paper  behind  and  that  be- 
trayed us.  He  was  almost  expelled  from  school 
for  putting  beeswax  on  the  boys'  seats  in  front, 
to  the  detriment  of  several  pairs  of  trousers. 
We  did  all  we  could  to  enliven  the  time  we  had 
to  put  in  there,  and  thought  it  well  worth  the 
risk  of  the  stick  after.  There  were  two  prayers 
in  the  morning  service  and  one  in  the  evening 
I  could  always  sleep  through  safely,  to  be  wak- 
ened in  time  to  sit  up  when  the  others  rose. 

The  only  Sunday  service  I  loved  was  the  hour 
reading  before  tea,  when  my  mother  read  to  us 
good  books  like  Hesba  Stretton's,  Mrs.  Wal- 
ton's, Mrs.  Gaskell's.  We  used  to  lie  on  the 
floor,  or  anywhere  about.  I  can  tell  those 
stories  now.  I  have  lived  those  hours  over 
again  many  times  since.  I  have  read  out  of 
those  same  books  in  lodging-houses,  hospitals, 
and  fishing-vessels,  and  they  have  brought  tears 
into  eyes  I  never  saw  them  in  before.  There  is 
a  great  deal  of  the  child  left  in  all  of  us  men  and 
women,  and  the  hatred  of  the  child  for  the  con- 


[22] 

ventional  use  of  faith  is  perpetuated  in  man- 
hood. The  way  that  repels  the  child  is  not  the 
way  to  attract  the  heart  of  the  adult.  The 
right  use  of  faith  is  not  to  make  the  whole  thing 
hateful  and  contemptible. 

A  THING  WORTH  HAVING 

In  the  countries  where  Jesus  is  nominally 
most  eloquently  and  frequently  advertised,  as 
far  as  words  and  sermons  and  ceremonies  go, 
the  bulk  of  people  never  think  of  faith  in  Christ 
at  all  as  a  valuable  practical  asset ;  a  mug  o' 
beer,  the  latest  motor  car,  an  evening  in  a  dive, 
a  house-party  at  Newport  —  anything  is  rated 
higher  and  more  desirable  than  faith  in  Christ. 
I  have  known  the  same  man  give  twenty  dollars 
for  an  electric  belt  and  fifty  cents  to  the  parson 
for  his  yearly  dues.  I  was  talking  to  a  poor 
fellow  convicted  of  stealing.  He  had  been  well 
brought  up,  i.  e.,  made  to  go  to  church,  to  read 
the  Bible,  and  to  say  his  prayers.  Yet  the  idea 
of  Christ  caring  had  so  little  occurred  to  him, 
I  could  see  instantly  the  reflex  face  expression 
which  showed  me  he  thought,  "  Now  for  some 
cant."  It  was  the  sort  of  look  the  men  in  the 
ten-cent  lodging-houses  used  to  assume  when, 
after  listening  to  my  feeble  efforts  at  preach- 
ing, they  sidled  up  to  "  borrow  ten  cents  for  a 
night's  lodging."  We  well  knew  this  to  mean  a 
whisky.  That  is  to  say,  they  thought  all 
preaching  was  done  by  fools  or  hypocrites. 

What  is  wrong,  then?  Is  it  the  faith  itself? 
I  do  not  pretend  to  know  many  things,  but  I  do 
know  that  is  not  at  fault.  Once  I  was  blind. 
Now  I  see.  That 's  the  sort  of  evidence  I  base 


[23] 

my  knowledge  on,  and  I  no  longer  feel  a  shiver 
when  some  scientific  magnate  pooh-poohs  the 
Master.  Think  of  it!  The  professors  of  the 
inexact  sciences  pooh-poohing  the  Son  of  God. 

One  of  my  hardest  trials  in  life  has  been  to 
have  to  keep  the  secrets  of  so  many  people.  As 
a  doctor  in  missionary  life  one  finds  out  so  many 
skeletons  in  cupboards.  It  is  hard  not  to  tell 
news.  It  is  harder  still  not  to  tell  good  news. 
Not  to  do  it  makes  you  feel  as  a  boy  felt  after  a 
Christmas  dinner  —  as  if  he  "  must  burst."  But 
it  is  worse  again  when  you  have  a  truth  that 
you  know  to  be  a  truth,  a  truth  of  infinite  prac- 
tical daily  value  forever  to  those  you  love  best, 
and  yet  you  cannot  tell  it.  You  can  say  it. 
You  can  quartet  it.  You  can  monotone  it.  You 
can  say  it  in  a  black  coat,  in  vestments,  at 
matins,  at  evensong,  at  the  solemn  feasts,  at  the 
new  moons.  But  still  you  have  not  conveyed 
your  truth  to  your  dearest  friend,  the  man  who 
shared  your  rooms,  and  studied  and  competed 
with  you,  who  played  on  the  team  with  you,  and 
who  trusted  you  with  a  pass  five  yards  from  the 
enemy's  goal  line.  Yet  he  won't  take  it  from 
your  LIPS  that  faith  in  Jesus  Christ  is  worth  a 
red  cent  —  won't  accept  it.  However,  the 
heathen,  the  stranger,  who  knows  not  your 
inner  life,  is  more  likely  to  listen.  Where  is  the 
fault?  Is  the  faith  in  Christ  really  not  of  value? 
Or  is  it  that  your  use  of  the  faith  fails  to  com- 
mend it  ?  If  you  are  really  eager  to  give  that  in- 
estimable gift  to  your  friend,  your  husband, 
your  darling  boy,  and  fail,  is  there  something 
wrong  in  your  use  of  it,  your  method  of  com- 
mending it?  Does  it  not  make  a  man's  heart 
cry  out,  "  My  God !  is  my  conventional  use  of 


[24] 

faith  the  cause  of  preventing  others  from  ac- 
cepting it?  " 

We  are  in  the  deepest  trouble  as  I  write. 
Two  boys  that  we  loved  and  trusted  have  been 
found  to  have  been  for  weeks  betraying  that 
trust.  There  is  no  question  in  our  hearts  of 
revenge  or  retributive  punishment.  The  whole 
issue  is,  what  remedy  can  save  these  lads  that 
we  still  love,  save  them  for  usefulness  for  the 
Master  that  we  know  they  are  capable  of?  Is 
i|  faith  in  Christ  able,  and  how  shall  we  use  it? 
I  am  absolutely  certain  it  can. 

THE  WILL  THE  KEY 


But  I  know  you  will  ask  how  shall  the  con- 
verted man  use  faith  in  his  own  life?  How 
shall  he  do  God's  will?  First,  he  must  abso- 
lutely finally  decide  he  is  willing  to  use  faith, 
willing  to  do  God's  will  as  far  as  he  knows  it 
every  time,  willing  to  pray  with  Jesus  in  deed 
as  well  as  word,  "  not  my  will  but  thine."  Be- 
yond that  no  human  being  can  lay  down  the  law 
for  another.  It  must  be  understood  that  no 
reservation  must  be  allowed.  Jesus  could  not 
come  down  from  his  cross.  All  your  heart,  all 
your  soul,  all  your  strength  —  either  give  it  all 
consciously,  or  give  it  all  up,  I  should  say. 
Lukewarm  adherents  will  be  spued  out  anyhow. 

How  to  use  faith  was  twenty-five  years  ago 
first  presented  to  myself,  a  medical  student  in 
East  London.  I  knew  that  the  right  way  to  use 
muscles  was  to  use  them,  and  I  argued  a  similar 
treatment  was  what  faith  needed.  I  knew  that 
singing  about  it  and  praying  for  it  was  not  so 
good  for  it.  One  reason  that  had  kept  me  from 


[25] 

the  pious  men,  or  "  pi-men,"  as  they  were  called, 
had  been  that  I  considered  them  good  at  little 
else  but  piety.  My  tastes  had  not  all  altered  be- 
cause I  had  become  a  Christian  man,  nor  had 
my  common  sense  deserted  me.  I  wanted  to  use 
my  faith.  Frequent  meetings  at  night  in  rather 
stuffy  rooms,  attended  mostly  by  women,  had 
no  more  attractions  for  me  than  before.  At 
these,  also,  so  many  prayed  for  things  I  could 
not  raise  any  enthusiasm  for,  and  as  my  Master 
prayed  mostly  alone,  I  decided  there  was,  at 
any  rate,  no  necessity  for  me  to  trespass  fur- 
ther on  my  evenings.  Moreover,  I  very  soon 
abandoned  attending  two  services  on  Sunday 
unless  I  was  to  take  part  in  one.  There  is  a 
selfishness  in  singing  hymns  and  prayers  that 
God  may  do  things  for  us  and  others,  while  we 
do  nothing  but  the  singing.  I  had  no  time  for 
preaching  in  the  week,  and  my  soul  was  far  from 
satisfied.  Our  parson,  good  man,  gave  us  a 
Bible  reading  Sunday  morning,  and  made  his 
evangelical  appeal  at  night.  The  first  pleased 
me,  because  I  always  gauge  the  value  of  a  ser- 
mon by  the  new  thoughts  I  can  write  into  my 
Bible  from  it.  Many  a  pilgrimage  I  made  to 
hear  Dr.  Joseph  Parker.  The  second  pleased 
me  because  it  enabled  me  to  leave  and  go  out 
into  the  highway  and  echo  the  appeal  as  well  as 
I  could. 

Among  the  Christians,  so  called,  whom  I 
knew  at  that  time  of  my  life,  none  were  "  doing 
anything  at  it "  that  attracted  me.  Two 
energetic  acquaintances  went  on  Sundays  to 
fasting  communions  (alas !  I  never  saw  much 
difference  between  them  and  any  one  else  in  any 
other  way).  If  I  must  confess  the  truth,  in  a 


\s 

f 


[26] 

dilemma  like  this,  even  then  it  still  seemed  strange 
to  ask  God  about  so  every-day  a  matter  as  to 
what  I  ought  to  do.  If  any  of  my  college  friends 
had  told  me  they  had  done  something  as  an  an- 
swer to  prayer,  the  result  of  my  own  deductions 
would  have  been  that  I  should  have  been  hugely 
amused  at  the  joke.  It  would  have  brought  a 
blush  to  my  face  to  venture  to  tell  them  any- 
thing of  the  kind;  indeed,  it  should  have  been, 
for  it  would  have  been  quite  unnatural.  To 
prove  my  estimate  of  the  value  of  personal 
prayer  at  that  time,  I  was  giving  an  hour  a 
day  before  breakfast,  in  Victoria  Park,  to  throw- 
ing the  sixteen-pound  hammer,  and  an  hour  at 
night  to  running  around  the  Hackney  common 
in  the  dark  to  train  my  body,  for  I  knew  that 
was  practically  valuable.  But  I  seldom  troubled 
myself  to  repeat  more  than  a  sleepy  general 
petition  before  going  to  bed. 


THE  PRAYER  THAT  COUNTS 

Long  prayers  have  not  now  become  a  habit 
with  me.  The  Master  himself  at  times  prayed 
for  long  hours,  and  there  are  special  occasions, 
perhaps,  when  we  all  can  feebly  imitate  him 
there.  But  I  don't  for  a  moment  believe  now 
that  we  are  to  be  heard  one  whit  more  for  our 
much  speaking.  Hard-work  praying  is  quite 
another  matter.  If  we  are  willing  to  submit 
our  will  to  his,  he  knows  our  hearts,  and  can 
guard  our  actions  and  words  to-day  as  quickly 
as  he  did  Nehemiah  of  old  in  the  king's  pres- 
ence. 

I  have  attended  live,  helpful  prayer  meetings. 
But  if  I  'm  tempted  to  gossip,  or  scold,  or  be 


I 


[27] 

vain  and  selfish,  or  to  waste  time  and  talent,  or 
to  set  a  poor  example,  what  is  the  use  of  wait- 
ing for  church  time  or  prayer-meeting?  A 
brief  "  God  help  me  "  at  the  time  is  more  rea- 
sonable. Or  again,  if  I  've  done  a  mean  act  to 
any  one,  the  only  honest  or  effectual  prayer  is 
to  go  and  put  it  right.  That  is  the  only  kind 
of  prayer  that  calls  for  Christ's  spirit,  and  helps 
out  more  next  time.  Surely  in  a  matter  so 
closely  affecting  his  own  kingdom  as  prayer, 
Jesus  gave  his  disciples  the  best  advice  possible 
when  they  asked  him.  The  wording  he  gave 
was  exceedingly  brief,  and  the  main  petition  was 
that  we  might  do  his  will  in  his  strength. 


MY  FIRST  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  CLASS 

The  answer  to  my  prayer  for  work  was  the 
offer  of  a  boys'  class  in  a  Sunday-school,  which 
it  cost  me  no  little  effort  to  accept.  From  the 
few  suggestions  made  and  asked,  it  might  have 
been  as  easy  a  task  as  teaching  my  terrier  to 
sit  up.  As  far  as  I  judged,  a  few  words  at  a 
weekly  meeting,  asking  God  to  do  the  bulk  of 
the  work,  was  sufficient  qualification  for  suc- 
cess. I  was  soon  to  be  sorely  undeceived.  If 
ever  I  felt  like  a  fish  out  of  water,  it  was  when 
I  walked  into  that,  my  first  Sunday-school,  and 
heard  myself  called  "teacher"  by  a  number  of 
unkempt  urchins.  Even  the  illustrations  from 
the  "  guide-book  to  the  lesson  "  seemed  lamen- 
tably ineffective  in  appealing  to  them,  and  I 
went  out  discouraged.  By  plodding  along  I 
taught  them  who  killed  Goliath,  and  much 
more  useful  knowledge,  a  good  deal  of  which 
was  not  in  the  guide-book.  For  instance,  that 


I 


I 


[28] 

it  did  not  pay  to  come  to  school  as  long  as  you 
sucked  peppermints,  and  that  the  use  of  hair 
oil  meant  "  out  you  go." 

But  I  seemed  as  far  from  their  hearts  and 
confidences  as  ever.  Here,  however,  I  must 
state  my  deepest  conviction  that  absolutely  the 
only  essential,  initial  assets  are  devotion  to 
Jesus  Christ  and  common  sense,  if  you  wish  to 
be  a  successful  worker  in  the  kingdom.  Our 
English  Sunday-schools  are  very  different  from 
the  American,  and  mine  did  not  commend  itself 
to  me  any  more  after  my  conversion  than  before 
it.  It  was  altogether  too  mild  an  entertainment 
to  satisfy  my  desire  for  work.  As  I  knew,  how- 
ever, what  had  appealed  to  me,  I  decided  to  try 
that.  I  started  a  movable  gymnasium  in  our 
sitting-room  with  one  night  a  week  for  boxing, 
fencing,  and  gymnastics.  The  parallel  bars 
were  the  only  trouble  to  fix.  This,  at  least, 
taught  the  boys  we  could  beat  them  at  other 
things  besides  Bible  stories.  In  this  way  we 
learned  to  trust  and  to  love  one  another,  and 
this  soon  gave  me  an  entry  into  their  homes. 
But  the  idea  of  boxing  displeased  our  parson, 
and  I  was  ignominiously  dismissed  from  the  roll 
of  teachers.  The  adaptable  dining-room,  how- 
ever, served  excellently  for  a  class-room,  and 
when  I  started  anew  all  my  old  scholars,  unbid- 
den, sought  a  place. 

Using  my  faith  on  the  same  principle,  I  regu- 
larly took  my  poor  lads  with  me  for  my  sum- 
mer holidays,  rather  than  leave  them  in  their 
sweatshops,  and  on  my  return  tell  them  what 
a  good  time  I  had  been  having  while  I  prayed 
for  their  souls.  My  boys  learned  to  swim,  to 
row,  to  sail  a  boat,  to  play  football,  to  box,  to 


I 


[29] 

drill,  to  handle  a  gun,  etc.,  and  the  class  in- 
creased largely  in  numbers  and  some  are  still 
among  my  best  friends  to-day.  The  outlay 
called  for  by  my  faith  along  that  line  has  paid 
me  personally  all  the  way. 


OUT  INTO  THE  HIGHWAYS 

The  afternoon  class,  however,  left  Sunday 
night  free,  and  I  had  the  good  luck,  as  I 
thought,  to  fall  in  with  a  young  Australian 
doctor,  who  was  studying  at  the  hospital  and 
preaching  in  the  slums  of  Radcliffe  Highway 
on  Sunday  evenings.  I  have  long  since  learned 
to  consider  this  an  answer  to  my  prayers. 

It  makes  me  now  feel  that  religion  has  grown 
with  me  to  be  altogether  "  too  respectable  "  as 
I  think  of  the  ragged-school  we  held  there,  and 
the  short  evening  services  in  six  or  seven  under- 
ground lodging-houses.  No  one  steals  the 
hymn-books  now,  or  comes  to  service  with  their 
eyes  blacked  by  the  police,  or  breaks  the  pic- 
tures and  furniture  because  you  get  in  a  minute 
or  two  after  time,  or  kicks  you  hard  as  you 
throw  them  out  for  misbehavior.  It  seems 
strange  how  much  we  two  enjoyed  that  odd 
work.  Perhaps  it  is  because  we  like  things  by 
contrast,  and  it  gave  one  a  better  change  and, 
therefore,  rest,  than  going  down  for  a  week-end 
to  some  friend  in  the  country  and  having  an 
extra  dinner,  with  a  cigar  and  a  snooze  after  on 
a  lounge  in  the  conservatory,  even  if  one  salved 
one's  conscience  for  the  loss  of  opportunity  by 
attending  evensong  after.  There  is  a  terrible 
danger  to  faith  in  too  much  respectability. 
The  world's  smile  has  danger  for  the  follower 


[30] 

of  Jesus  Christ.  When  the  Episcopalians  were 
respectable  God  raised  Methodism,  and  with 
Methodism  the  Salvation  Army. 

WINNING  ONE'S  COMPANIONS 

How  to  use  faith  among  my  companions  and 
my  superiors  was  quite  another  question.  I 
was  then  unable  to  give  an  answer  if  my  equals 
J}  said  Huxley  and  Tyndall,  Berthollet  and  Vol- 
taire, Froude  and  Renan,  Morley  and  Mrs. 
Humphry  Ward  and  others  had  pulverized  the 
claims  of  Jesus.  I  could  only  argue  that  I  be- 
lieved it  because  I  did.  Like  the  woman  who 
sank  in  the  pond  for  the  last  time,  snapping  two 
fingers  to  indicate  "  scissors."  It  was  worse 
with  my  superiors.  Every  time  that  I  found  a 
man  sneering  at  faith  whose  intellect  I  bowed 
down  before,  as  a  student  will  before  his 
teachers,  a  cold  shiver  would  run  down  my  back, 
or  would  leave  my  heart  h'ke  lead  till  I  got  back 
to  the  tonic  of  my  boys  of  the  ragged -school. 
I  had  been  for  years  nominally  a  Christian,  and 
yet  I  certainly  had  no  experience  to  argue  from. 
The  results  of  previous  years  had  left  in  my 
mind  only  the  unexpressed  deduction  that  Chris- 
tianity was  a  failure,  and  its  adherents  among 
young  men,  poor-spirited,  only  those  who 
sought  an  insurance  ticket  for  heaven. 

I  cannot  help  inserting  here  an  incident  that 
greatly  helped  to  clinch  in  my  mind  that  the 
right  way  for  me  to  use  faith  was  to  live  it. 
We  had  been  playing  a  big  football  match,  and 
I  was  captain  of  our  team.  Afterwards  we 
dressed  in  a  saloon  parlor.  While  dressing  a 
great  crowd  of  men  were  in  the  room  and  some- 


[31] 

one,  mounting  on  the  table,  began  reading  and 
vilely  commenting  on  a  portion  of  the  Bible. 
It  seemed  natural  enough  to  ask  the  man  to 
refrain  till  I  was  no  longer  forced  to  be  pres- 
ent, to  which,  sheepishly  enough,  he  assented. 
Some  years  after  a  poor  student,  who  had  gone 
wrong,  came,  to  my  great  surprise,  to  ask  advice 
from  me.  He  had  been  apparently  in  the  saloon 
at  the  time  of  the  above  incident.  He  told  me 
that  my  feeble  protest  had  gone  home  to  his 
heart.  Such  unimportant  trifles  apparently  are 
the  right  use  of  faith,  and  I  feel  sure  that  a  pro- 
test against  doubtful  things  naturally  and  mod- 
estly made  in  places  where  such  things  would  be 
expected  to  go  unchallenged,  does  more  for  Christ 
than  much  more  voluble  ones  made  in  gather- 
ings where  everyone  is  looking  out  for  such 
things.  I  have  had  several  similar  experiences. 

God  forbid  I  should  underrate  the  value  of 
being  able  to  enter  a  word  of  intelligent  protest 
against  false  statements,  such  as  that  mission- 
aries are  the  cause  of  half  the  wars,  that  men 
of  science  have  given  up  faith  in  miracles,  etc., 
etc.  But  when  the  brain  is  not  able  to  devote 
time  to  learning  answers  to  every  question  a 
man  must  be  satisfied  with  some  other  way. 
More  than  that,  I  feel  that  to  refute  an  argu- 
ment is  never  so  powerful  an  advertisement  for 
Christ  as  an  act  that  is  a  testimony  to  his  power 
to  change  men. 

WHY  I  WENT  TO  LABRADOR 

One  more  personal  experience  I  feel  con- 
strained to  relate.  I  have  often  been  asked  how 
I  came  to  choose  Labrador  or  the  deep  sea  as 


s 


[Si] 

a  field  for  a  life-work.  It  is  my  habit  constantly 
to  ask  God  to  teach  me  each  day  how  to  rightly 
use  my  faith.  I  have  never  had  any  doubt  that 
he  does  so.  Yet  I  can  honestly  say  I  never  went 
through  any  great  crisis  of  deciding  to  renounce 
the  pleasures  of  life,  and  accept  the  "  self- 
sacrificing  life  of  a  missionary."  On  the  con- 
trary, I  ardently  looked  for  a  niche  in  the  world 
suitable  for  my  talents,  and  left  it  entirely  with 
him  whose  guiding  hand  I  have  been  able  to  see 
in  the  events  of  my  life  as  plainly  as  ever  I  saw 
a  pilot's  hand  directing  my  vessels  on  the  many 
coasts  I  've  sailed  along. 

My  idea  of  pleasure  has  always  been  a  reali- 
zation of  utility,  either  to  the  body,  mind,  or 
soul.  Cards  waste  time,  I  think;  so  do  most 
theaters ;  alcohol  is  always  hurtful.  I  have 
avoided  these  and  many  such  meats,  without 
criticising  others,  like  those,  who,  from  my  own 
childhood,  I  have  seen  using  these  things. 

It  gave  me  the  keenest  pleasure  to  go  to  sea. 
It  was  a  perfect  delight  to  find  that  I  was  the 
only  and,  therefore,  the  best  doctor  there. 
Long  dinners,  dancing,  voluminous  correspond- 
ence, I  always  hated.  So  I  found  no  great 
deprivation  in  the  simple  life  among  the  fisher- 
Theology  was  unknown ;  there  were  no 


men. 


sects  at  sea,  and  when  the  work  sought  me  abso- 
lutely without  any  seeking  on  my  part,  I  gladly 
accepted  it.  That  does  not  account  for  Labra- 
dor. No,  it  does  n't.  There  has  been  a  little 
effort,  possibly,  about  the  leaving  home.  But 
for  enjoyment  of  life,  body,  soul,  and  spirit,  I 
can  only  say  each  field  of  life  I  go  into  seems 
more  delightful  than  the  last.  From  this  I 
argue  the  right  way  of  faith  must  be  an  enjoy- 


[33] 

able  use  of  it.  I  don't  for  a  moment  beb'eve  God 
intends  his  servants  to  have  long  faces,  and  if 
their  work  is  a  misery  to  them  they  ought  to 
get  out  of  it.  For  it  cannot  be  where  they  are 
intended  to  be.  To  be  like  Jesus  certainly  can- 
not be  to  be  unhappy  and  look  wretched. 


NEVEB  THE  SAME  AS  KNOWLEDGE 

It  seems  unnecessary  to  have  been  writing  all 
this  while  that  to  use  faith  aright  you  must  put 
it  into  use.  It  seems  one  must  add  another  re- 
mark, however,  of  the  same  kind,  viz.,  to  use 
faith  is  to  use  faith  and  not  knowledge.  I  had 
to  travel  fifteen  miles  the  other  day  over  the 
sea.  The  heavy  pack-ice  was  too  rough  to 
travel  over;  but  a  long  break  had  frozen  over 
and  was  covered  with  smooth,  thin  ice.  We 
trusted  it  and  got  home  safely. 

Towards  God  the  use  of  faith  is  unquestion- 
ing trust  and  submission.  Towards  man  it 
means  to  cease  arguing  and  disputing  and  get 
to  echoing  that  love  that  Christ  himself  evinced 
for  all  mankind,  good,  bad,  or  indifferent.  He 
who  loveth  best,  serveth  best,  and  will  readiest 
overlook  wrongs  done  himself.  Unlike  Mrs. 
Grundy,  the  Master  was  not  everlastingly 
scenting  errors  and  exposing  the  sins  of  others. 
The  Master  said  hard  things  about  hypocrisy 
and  much  about  want  of  faith,  but  very  little 
about  the  Magdalene  and  the  man  who  stole  his 
brother's  share  of  the  property. 


III.    HOW    TO    KEEP    FAITH 


I 


MY 


first  aid  to  retaining  faith  was  a  deter- 
mination to  keep  it.  I  determined  that  if  intel- 
lectual difficulties  arose,  I  would  wait  till,  like 
Henry  Drummond's  unanswered  letters,  they 
answered  themselves.  And  if  they  never  did, 
well,  I  would  wait  till  the  mystery  of  life  itself 
was  solved.  As  a  rule  I  found  on  that  principle 
in  a  week  or  two  I  forgot  all  about  them.  The 
fact  was  I  had  a  lot  of  medical  work  to  do. 

What  did  eternal  punishment,  eternal  reward, 
eternal  personal  identity,  the  time  the  last  day 
should  arrive,  predestination,  postmillennial- 
ism,  the  meaning  of  the  horned  beast,  the  scarlet 
woman,  the  authenticity  of  St.  John,  the  science 
of  Genesis,  the  authorship  of  the  Pentateuch, 
the  puzzle  about  Cain's  wife,  infant  baptism,  the 
misdeeds  of  parsons  and  so-called  Christians, 
matter  to  me?  I  had  a  kind  of  intellectual 
puzzle-box,  and  into  that  they  all  used  to  go, 
and  I  then  got  time  to  "  keep-a-going."  The 
story  of  Lot's  wife  helped  me  more  than  Gum- 
ness's  Aproaching  End  of  the  Age.  Our  Lord's 
remarks  about  the  man  who  put  his  hand  to 
the  plow  and  looked  back  did  me  more  good 
than  all  the  books  of  the  Christian  Evidence 
Society.  As  for  conferences,  I  got  behind  the 
cloak  of  that  magnificent  patriot  and  hero,  the 
cup-bearer  Nehemiah,  and  declined  invitations 
even  to  Keswick,  because  that  was  the  only  time 
I  had  to  take  my  Sunday-school  class  to  camp 


I 


[35] 

in  North  Wales,  and  to  Northfield,  also,  because 
that  is  my  busiest  season  among  the  fishermen. 

I  cannot  give  any  reasons  why,  beyond  what 
I  see  Christ  doing  in  the  world  to-day,  but 
simply  state  the  fact  that  now,  twenty-five  years 
since  I  heard  D.  L.  Moody  and  his  men  tell  what 
faith  in  Christ  can  do,  I  believe  my  faith  has 
grown  into  knowledge.  If  that  great  man  could 
rise  from  the  grave  and  walk  in  here  now,  I 
fancy  myself  simply  getting  up  and  saying, 
"  Mr.  Moody,  you  were  plumb  right."  Perhaps 
under  these  unusual  circumstances  I  should, 
however,  add,  "  Were  you  not  ?  "  Shall  I  ever 
forget  the  only  other  time  I  ever  saw  him?  It 
was  fourteen  years  later  in  a  Boston  hotel. 
"  Mr.  Moody,"  I  said,  "  fourteen  years  ago  I 
put  my  faith  in  Jesus  Christ  after  hearing  you 
preach."  "  Oh."  he  replied,  looking  me  up  and 
down,  "  and  what  have  you  been  doing  since?  " 
On  my  replying  he  said,  "  Well,  you  don't  re- 
pent it,  do  you?  "  "  Certainly  not."  "Well, 
come  to  Tremont  Temple  this  afternoon  and  tell 
them  just  that,  and  then  you  can  go  in  the  upper 
gallery  and  speak  to  your  next-door  neighbor. 
We  were  rather  short  of  Christians  up  there 
yesterday.  Good-by."  He  never  asked  me 
a  single  question  about  being  a  premillennialist, 
or  even  one  from  the  Shorter  Catechism. 

Some  one  may  say :  "  Your  way  to  retain 
faith  is  just  stultifying  yourself.  God  gave 
you  reason  to  know  the  truth."  Agreed,  but 
we  don't  all  learn  it  out  of  Mills's  Logic,  or 
the  Greek  Lexicon,  or  the  new  theology,  or 
German  criticism,  or  the  Koran,  or  the  Vedas, 
or  the  book  of  Mormon  Doctrine,  or  Science  and 


[36] 

Health.  No,  nor  out  of  the  New  Testament 
either.  Though  I  personally  believe  the  New 
Testament  to  be  the  Word  of  God,  still  I  am 
doubtful  if  Christ  ever  intended  us  to  pin  our 
faith  on  the  New  Testament  or  any  other  book 
solely,  to  say  nothing  of  verbal  inspiration.  I 
think  he  would  have  written  a  book  himself,  and 
made  sure  of  guaranteeing  its  authenticity  for 
all  time;  or,  at  least  he  would  have  seen  that 
more  than  two  out  of  the  twelve  apostles  gave 
an  account  of  his  life  in  writing.  Job  was 
anxious  to  have  his  words  written  in  a  book 
with  leaden  and  iron  letters,  and  so  they  were 
eventually,  though  I  do  not  know  that  I  could 
not  get  along  very  well  if  they  had  not  been. 
But  we  have  no  record  that  Jesus  Christ's 
words,  though  they  advance  such  stupendous 
claims,  and  include  such  absolutely  appalling 
statements  that  they  have  upset  kingdoms, 
swept  the  civilized  world,  and  transformed  the 
nations  who  listened  to  them,  were,  so  far  as 
I  know,  ever  written  down  at  his  personal  re- 
quest, or  even  at  all  till  a  very  long  while,  many 
years  after  his  death.  With  him  "  the  Word 
was  made  flesh,  and  dwelt  among  us." 

Jesus  wrote  in  far  more  indelible  letters.  He 
wrote  in  language  which  the  knowledge  of  the 
succeeding  ages,  as  it  grew  in  extent  and  showed 
the  science  of  the  past  to  have  been  foolishness, 
has  as  yet  found  no  flaw  in.  He  wrote  in  let- 
ters which  the  wayfaring  man,  though  a  fool, 
could  understand;  yes,  and  I  believe  can  un- 
derstand to-day,  if  he  only  will.  He  wrote  in 
letters  "  which  those  who  run  may  read,"  and 
that  is  a  very  necessary  caligraphy  to  the  twen- 
tieth century.  For  everyone  is  so  much  on  the 


I 


[STJ 

run  they  have  less  and  less  time  to  devote  to 
bell,  book,  and  candle.  They  want  sky  signs, 
and,  what  is  more,  I  believe  these  are  there  for 
them  on  every  hand  if  they  will  only  take  time 
to  look  at  them. 

Young  men  fresh  from  the  victories  of  faith 
in  China,  India,  Japan,  and  the  uttermost  parts 
of  the  earth  always  get  a  hearing  as  they  tell  in 
plain  English  what  they  have  seen.  Many  men 
wonder  why  there  are  such  an  increasing  num- 
ber of  student  volunteers.  It  is  because  these 
men  know  they  will  "  see  something  for  their 
money."  Men  get  fired  with  enthusiasm,  and  will 
give  themselves  and  their  all  as  readily  to-day 
as  by  the  Galilean  lake  for  the  real  article  — 
for  that  which  does  things,  for  that  which  "  gets 
there."  Men  with  the  capacity  of  Mackays  will 
go  to  Uganda  to  live  and  die  among  savages, 
to  engineer  for  Christ.  Clowes  will  go  to  India 
to  build  canals ;  men  of  the  personality  of  Liv- 
ingstone will  go  to  Africa  to  explore  for  Christ ; 
men  of  the  business  capacity  of  Duncan  will  go 
to  Metakatla  to  build  cooperative  enterprises 
for  redskins.  Military  magnates  like  Charles 
Gordon  will  live  in  the  slums  of  Greenwich,  and 
Mre  may  all  know  men  of  wealth  and  social  posi- 
tion to-day  away  in  the  outermost  places  of  the 
earth  living  their  whole  day  of  life  out  there  for 
Christ,  just  as  well  as  they  would  in  the  first 
century.  Not  a  solitary  one  of  that  kind  of 
preacher  has  ever  come  whining  home  that  no 
one  will  listen  to  them,  and  that  their  churches 
are  empty.  Write  and  preach  in  the  language 
and  letters  in  which  Jesus  told  us  the  same  mes- 
sage of  good  news ;  work  in  the  ways  and  the 
spirit  he  worked  in ;  walk  in  the  footsteps  he 


[38] 

trod,  and  men  may  argue  and  talk  and  criticise 
higher  or  lower  till  doomsday,  but  the  masses 
of  mankind  will  still  flock  to  hear  you,  and  you 
won't  merely  tickle  their  ears;  you  will  renew 
their  lives.  You  cannot  help  retaining  faith  in 
a  fountain  you  see  giving  the  water  of  life  to 
men  dying  of  thirst. 

THE  INWARD  WITNESS 

Then,  if  you  are  "  losing  faith  in  the  Gada- 
rene  pig  story,"  you  won't  miss  that  one  miracle 
so  much  if  you  have  to  abandon  it.  For,  if  it  is 
not  irreverent  to  say  so,  you  will  have  a  dozen 
solid  facts  you  could  swear  to  in  a  court  of  law 
from  your  own  personal  experience,  which  will 
be  ten  times  more  helpful  to  yourself  and  to 
other  men  to-day  than  your  final  decision  as  to 
the  fate  of  those  unfortunate  animals.  If  you 
have  the  evidence  of  "  that  which  you  have 
seen  and  heard  "  to  give,  instead  of  being  any- 
how ruled  out  of  court  by  the  majority  of  men 
because  they  appraise  your  evidence  as  uncon- 
vincing and  inadmissible  as  mere  book  knowl- 
edge, you  will  be  the  most  valuable  witness  for 
the  Christ,  and  the  most  dangerous  foe  to  the 
devil  of  doubt.  You  '11  be  on  the  same  level  as 
the  imperturbable,  but  undeniable,  blind  man, 
whom  all  the  priests  and  learned  men  could  not 
phase,  because  he  entirely  upset  them  all  by 
sticking  to  the  fact,  "  one  thing  I  know."  "  One 
thing  at  any  rate  I  do  know,  and  that  is,  I  was 
myself  blind,  and  now  I  see."  If  you  are  anxious 
to  help  others  to  retain  faith,  get  out  and  do 
something  for  Christ's  sake. 

Moreover,  if  you  want  your  own  faith  to  be 


I 


9 

I 


[39] 

anything  but  a  weakling  —  a  "  sensitive  plant," 
use  it,  keep  it  about  with  you.  Don't  be 
ashamed  to  show  it  and  speak  of  it  naturally  as 
one  would  of  one's  business  or  pleasure.  The 
hothouse  of  an  artistic  edifice,  the  ornate  trap- 
pings of  faith's  environment,  may  give  it  a  spur 
when  it  is  drooping,  but  it  is  a  poor  environ- 
ment to  which  to  keep  it  permanently.  It  will 
surely  make  a  weed  of  it  if  you  don't  get  it 
out  into  the  open  again  very  soon.  Fads  and 
faddists  will  be  the  outcrop.  The  cold  storage 
of  the  convent  or  cloistered  cell,  the  high  fence 
of  eccentric  garments  would  be  no  help  to  me. 
These  seem  only  like  keeping  your  plant  in  a  pot 
in  the  house,  where  plants  that  survive  healthily 
for  long  are  very  rare  indeed. 

It  was  the  evidence  of  the  great  growth  of  the 
kingdom  Jesus  founded,  and  still  possessed 
without  display  of  physical  force,  that  so  im- 
pressed the  great  Napoleon.  The  fact  is,  to 
help  faith  all  men  want  testimonies ;  whether  it 
be  an  applicant  for  a  position,  an  investment  for 
money,  or  a  family  doctor,  we  ask  for  "  recom- 
mendations." Men  want  to  see  that  faith  in 
Christ  means  regulated  social  problems  and 
political  problems,  and  transformed  human 
hearts  and  homes. 

There  is  a  growing  revolt  against  conven- 
tional religion.  Thought  is  free,  and  the  ex- 
pression of  it  ever  getting  freer,  both  in  word 
and  action.  Thank  God  for  it.  Men  are  begin- 
ning to  see  what  they  need,  and  so  better  to  say 
what  they  want.  Who  needs  preachers  with- 
out a  life-giving  message?  Such  men  are 
worse  than  useless  as  advertisements  for  faith 
nowadays. 


[40] 


FAITH  AMONG  THE  LOWLY 

Here  is  a  good  advertisement.  A  certain  poor 
working-girl  lived  near  a  struggling  widow 
with  four  children  in  a  large  city.  She  had  no 
money  to  give  her,  though  faith  prompted  her 
to  do  so.  So  she  went  and  taught  her  the 
way  in  which  she  earned  her  own  living,  that 
was  by  special  washing  of  fine  articles,  and 
eventually  shared  her  rooms,  and  so  she  success- 
fully bore  the  widow's  burden  with  her. 

Here  is  another.  A  man  with  four  children 
was  left  on  this  coast  with  one  barrel  of  flour 
to  face  the  winter,  when  December  set  in.  He 
could  only  buy  more  if  he  caught  some  fur, 
and  would  then  have  to  go  and  haul  it  nearly 
twenty  miles  himself,  weak  as  he  was  from  poor 
diet.  One  of  his  neighbors  suddenly  came  to 
his  door  and  told  him  that  his  family  of  seven 
had  eaten  their  last  crust  two  days  before.  The 
man,  for  Christ's  sake,  gave  him  a  baking-pan 
heaped  full  with  flour,  out  of  his  one  barrel. 

Here  is  a  man  whose  sole  support  for  his 
family  depended  on  a  four-hundred-dollar  net  in 
which  he  had  invested  his  all.  Yet,  for  the  sake 
of  his  neighbors,  he,  a  professed  follower  of 
Christ,  would  not  go  out  to  save  it  from  drift- 
ice  on  a  Sunday.  The  one  did  for  Christ ;  the 
other  gave  for  Christ.  The  last  made  a  sacri- 
fice at  great  cost  for  Christ.  Which  makes  you 
love  and  believe  in  Christ,  these  humble  evidences 
of  his  power  to-day,  or  those  non-committal  dis- 
quisitions, that  correct  ritual,  that  flowery  lan- 
guage from  the  pulpit  last  Sunday  morning? 


[41] 


> 


"  ASK  THE  SKIPPEE  " 

My  faith  having  come  through  the  foolishness 
of  preaching,  I  do  not  want  to  think  of  it  as  all 
folly.  But  my  faith  now  is  far  more  helped  by 
seeing  the  fruit  faith  bears  than  by  anything 
else.  Personally,  therefore,  I  preach  (or  try 
to)  rather  as  an  adjunct  to  my  other  work, 
than  as  the  principal  remedy  for  unfaith,  or  the 
most  effectual  weapon  for  Christ.  Our  staff 
is  a  company  of  doctors,  engineers,  teachers, 
sailors.  I  have  listened  to  an  appeal  for  faith 
in  Christ  made  by  the  cook  on  my  steamer,  which 
was  more  eloquent  than  many  I  have  heard  from 
lawn  sleeves.  It  was  impossible  to  sleep  through 
that  discourse,  or  to  be  indifferent  to  it.  It 
was  simply  a  series  of  facts,  which,  knowing 
him,  I  knew  were  true,  and  they  went  right  home 
to  their  mark.  I  was  called  once  to  see  a  man 
dying  on  a  fishing-vessel  off  this  coast.  As  I 
left  the  cabin  he  called  out,  "  You  've  forgotten 
me,  Doctor ;  I  'm  the  man  who  was  converted 

at two  years  ago."    "  Well,"  I  said,  "  what 

difference  has  it  made  to  you  ?  "  "  Ask  the 
skipper,"  he  replied.  The  remarks  of  his 
skipper  were  no  end  of  a  help  to  my  faith. 


UNFOEMULATED  FAITH 

It  is  true  much  excellent,  unselfish  work  is 
being  done  without  any  definite  recognition  of 
faith  in  God,  or,  perhaps,  of  the  deity  of  Jesus 
Christ  as  its  base.  Most  helpful  have  many  such 
efforts  been  to  me,  Hull  House  in  Chicago,  or 
Dr.  Edward  Everett  Hale's  work  in  Boston,  far 


N 


[42] 

from  making  me  feel  "there  is,  therefore,  no 
room  for  Jesus  Christ  to-day,"  I  err,  if  err  I  do, 
on  the  other  side.  I  lodged  a  while  ago  on  a 
journey  with  a  revival  preacher,  and  we  fell  to 
talking  of  a  certain  fisherman  who  had  been 
plucky  enough  to  add  the  work  of  a  cooperative 
storekeeper  to  his  daily  work,  that  he  might 
thereby  help  to  fight  the  hateful  truck  system 
of  trade,  which  was  holding  his  fellows  in  a  white 
slavery.  The  evangelist,  a  right  good  man  to 
my  knowledge,  regretted  the  storekeeper  was 
not  a  Christian.  I  quoted,  "  Christ  says,  '  He 
that  is  not  against  us  is  for  us.' '  "  No,"  he 
replied,  "  Christ  does  n't  say  that ;  he  says, 
4  He  that  is  not  with  us  is  against  us.' '  I  was 
glad  when  we  looked  up  chapter  and  verse  that 
he  expressed  no  sorrow  that  Christ  has  made 
such  a  generous  criterion. 


BUT  FAITH  DOES  HELP 

Whatever  factor  it  is  makes  men  do  good  or 
unselfish  work,  let  us  by  all  means  welcome  and 
praise  it.  But  I  can  only  say  still,  I  have  found 
faith  in  Jesus  Christ  as  Son  of  God  make  men 
do  that  which  nothing  else  did,  and  bear  and 
suffer  with  equanimity  that  which  nothing  else 
would.  I  have  seen  walk  into  the  anaesthetis- 
ing room  and  lie  down  on  the  table  with  a 
bright  smile  on  her  face,  a  delicate  girl,  who 
was  to  undergo  a  severe  operation  that  meant 
life  or  death  to  her.  The  dread  of  the  knife  is 
magnified  by  the  un familiarity  of  the  people 
of  the  coast  with  modern  surgical  statistics. 
Yet  I  heard  only  yesterday  two  brave  fel- 
lows' last  words  as  they  lost  consciousness 


before  their  operations,  "  Jesus  have  mercy  on 


me. 


Faith  in  Him  is  precious  for  other  purposes 
than  as  a  motive  power  to  service.  More  than 
once  I  have  had  to  go  to  the  door  of  some  tiny 
cottage;  within  was  a  happy  wife,  a  loving 
mother,  and  prattling  babes ;  the  humble  sur- 
roundings of  the  home  have  eaten  into  my  soul, 
as  they  cried  out  of  the  hard  toil  and  the  loving 
care  of  him  on  whom  even  the  bare  necessities 
of  life  depended.  For  I  was  there  to  carry  the 
news  that  the  strong  hand  that  toiled  would 
never  again  bring  help  and  comfort,  that  the 
brave  heart  which  meant  all  the  world  to  these 
helpless  ones  was  lying  silent  in  death.  At  that 
moment,  if  ever,  I  have  known  what  faith  in 
Jesus  Christ  meant,  both  to  me  and  to  others, 
a  knowledge  I  can  personally  only  lose  when  for 
me  also  all  the  apparent  paradoxes  of  our  human 
life  shall  be  solved,  or  silenced,  by  our  last  grim 
enemy  or  friend. 


I 


EXERCISE  ESSENTIAL, 

I  have  said  nothing  about  the  rationality  of 
using  the  will-power  to  maintain  our  faith,  the 
determination  to  keep  it.  It  seems  to  me  just 
as  rational  as  a  determination  to  keep  anything 
else  at  all  cost.  Faith  is  a  living  thing,  and  will 
die  if  its  environment  is  permitted  to  become 
incompatible.  This  is  in  our  control,  and  that 
control  must  be  exercised.  Faith's  immediate 
environment  is  body,  soul,  and  spirit ;  and  their 
health  means  its  health,  and  their  health  depends 
on  their  environment.  Too  much  fasting  or 
feasting  will  undermine  the  health  of  each  of 


X 


f 


[44] 

these.  We  can  overfeed  the  body.  An  Alex- 
ander can  die  of  surfeit.  We  can  overtax  the 
mind  —  much  learning  can  make  men  mad.  We 
can  lay  burdens  on  men's  spirits  they  are  unable 
to  bear ;  or,  again,  we  can  wrongly  feed  or  under- 
feed the  body;  we  can  let  the  mind  atrophy,  or 
choke  it  with  rubbish;  we  can  let  the  spirit 
starve  for  want  of  its  "  daily  bread." 

The  health  of  the  body  involves  avoiding 
doubtful  indulgences,  and  a  man  is  not  to  be  con- 
demned if  he  avoids  alcohol,  coffee,  tobacco,  or 
even  meat  under  certain  circumstances.  It  is 
surely  a  sign  of  wisdom  to  exercise  the  will  in 
selecting  food  for  the  mind.  Endless  trashy 
literature,  unnecessary  conventional  corre- 
spondence, special  and  extra-special  editions  of 
useless  information  are  not  conducive  to  mental 
salubrity.  Too  many  conventions,  multiplica- 
tion of  "  services,"  just  as  much  as  narrow 
puritanism  or  dry-as-dust  ecclesiasticism,  are  a 
danger  to  the  soul.  Mr.  Moody  said,  with  his 
sound  common  sense,  "  Once  to  take  in  Sundays 
is  enough  for  the  Christian  man.  He  would  be 
a  stronger  man  if  he  used  the  rest  of  his  time 
giving  out." 

Again,  the  wisdom  of  Christ  stands  out  be- 
fore the  ages.  He  kept  the  Sabbath,  the  feasts ; 
he  observed  the  Jewish  ordinances.  But  he  did 
not  condemn  the  Samaritans  or  his  disciples  for 
eating  corn  on  the  Sabbath,  and  he  left  no  hard 
and  fast  rules  for  observing  the  first  day  of  the 
week*  Yet  our  abstinence  in  little  things  may 
be  more  far-reaching  as  a  help  in  retaining  faith 
than  we  might  suppose,  and  a  man  is  not  neces- 
sarily a  hypocrite  because  he  won't  even  appear 
to  work  on  a  Sunday  himself,  won't  play  cards 


I 


[45] 

for  money,  or  is  a  total  abstainer.  If  the  white 
men  in  the  South  have  voted  "  prohibition " 
solely  for  the  sake  of  their  black  population, 
who  is  to  throw  stones  at  them? 

While  the  body  is  growing  it  needs  more  care 
in  its  treatment.  More  conscious  educational 
efforts  are  conceded  to  the  mind  while  it  is 
young  and  expanding.  But  the  spirit  never 
reaches  maturity  this  side  the  grave;  it  must 
grow  or  die.  So  surely  we  must  exercise  effort 
on  its  behalf  with  sedulous  care  to  life's  very 
end,  and  the  gates  of  pearl  are  closed  behind  us. 
Thus  control  and  exercise  of  the  whole  man  is 
essential  for  the  maintenance  of  a  faith  that  has 
life.  We  cannot  drift  into  heaven  like  dead  fish 
down  a  stream.  Salvation  must  be  worked  out. 
Who,  then,  is  to  exercise  this  supreme  control? 
Is  it  my  will  only,  or  God's  will?  "  Not  my  will, 
but  thine,"  was  the  Master's  goal  of  prayer. 
"  Teach  me  to  do  thy  wiD  "  must  be  the  petition 
and  desire  in  the  heart  of  the  man  who  wishes  to 
retain  faith. 

The  practical  issues  of  the  above  are  obvious. 
The  choice  of  food  should  be  by  knowledge 
rather  than  by  natural  appetite.  How  many 
babes  on  this  coast  perish  from  the  ignorance  of 
mothers,  how  much  suffering  and  loss  of  power, 
and  how  much  expense  is  incurred  in  this  very 
harbor  from  sheer  ignorance  and  want  of  effort 
to  know  more  of  dietetics.  How  much  time  men 
lose  in  reading  books  that  would  not  receive  the 
endorsement  of  one  wise  man  as  useful,  or  even 
fit  food  for  the  mind.  Fiction  enough  to  stimu- 
late our  imagination  and  keep  us  human  is 
surely  sufficient. 


- 


I 


! 


[46] 

HELP  FROM  THE  BIBLE 

To  me  no  book  has  been  so  helpful  as  the  Bible. 
I  do  not  believe  in  making  people  promise  to 
read  so  much  each  day,  as  if  it  were  a  nasty 
medicine,  or  in  binding  one's  self  to  do,  that. 
Common  sense  tells  us  that  if  it  is  to  be  good 
manure  for  a  seedling  faith,  we  must  use  it  so 
as  to  understand  it.  To  me  the  Twentieth  Cen- 
tury New  Testament  has  been  a  great  help 
because  it  is  in  newspaper  language,  and  that 
is  specially  designed  to  convey  ideas  easily. 
The  English  of  the  Authorized  Version  may  be 
as  improving  as  the  Latin  of  the  Vulgate  or  the 
Greek  of  the  Septuagint.  But  I  go  to  my  Bible 
for  practical  information  as  much  as  I  do  to 
the  medical  journals. 

If  my  skipper  confined  his  reading  of  the 
coast  pilot  to  versions  printed  in  King  James 
English  I  should  soon  look  out  for  someone 
else  to  keep  me  off  the  rocks,  and  bring  me  to 
the  haven  where  I  would  be.  We  don't  blame 
men  in  Wall  Street  for  reading  the  financial 
news  in  modern  American,  and  the  Christ  needs 
men  in  his  service  to  be  more  up-to-date  and  alive 
and  efficient  even  than  stock-brokers.  His  men 
should  be  ahead  of  their  day,  as  he  was  of  his. 
The  only  commentary  for  reference  I  ever  cared 
for  was  Matthew  Henry's.  I  heard  Mr.  Spur- 
geon  say,  "  If  a  man  has  n't  got  it  he  should 
sell  his  coat  and  get  it."  It  is  as  practical  as 
Mrs.  Beaton's  cookery  books. 

But  I  am  no  authority  on  books  for  helping 
faith.  I  scrawl  all  over  my  copies  of  the  Bible. 
It  makes  them  feel  more  like  old  friends.  They 


I 


[47] 

are  cheap  enough,  and  when  one  gets  illegible 
you  can  invest  in  another.  It  is  a  great  help  to 
me  to  look  back  and  see  how  my  own  faith  has 
grown  since  last  I  annotated  the  same  passage. 

Much  mental  economy  and  much  strain  can 
be  effected  also  by  regulation  of  the  use  of  all 
the  modern  luxuries  of  civilization  —  especially 
the  telephone.  I  often  wonder  if  having  one's 
number  in  the  book  does  n't  really  make  one  lose 
more  than  one  gains.  Cases  of  too  much  Chris- 
tian work  for  the  best  health  of  the  spirit  have 
been  reported.  But  mortality  from  that  cause 
has  not  been  a  serious  item  in  my  small  experi- 
ence. I  think  I  have  seen  more  danger  from  a 
condition  corresponding  to  "  nervous  prostra- 
tion," and  induced  by  similar  causes.  Too  little 
work,  not  enough  fresh  air  and  exercise,  too  much 
introspection,  and  on  this  coast  too  much  of  that 
excellent  text-book,  The  Family  Doctor.  This 
always  reminds  me  of  a  friend  who  purchased  a 
black  bear  for  a  pet.  He  put  it  to  hibernate  in 
a  barrel  when  winter  came  on,  and  then  he  buried 
it.  But  he  kept  wanting  to  see  if  it  was  still 
there.  So  he  dug  it  up  after  a  few  weeks  only, 
and  thereby  woke  it  up  and  nearly  killed  it 
altogether. 

Faith  must  be  used  to  keep  its  vitality.  No 
faith  can  survive  long  with  the  sleeping-sickness. 
It  soon  becomes  flabby  and  useless. 


RENEWALS  OP  FAITH 

Again,  it  will  do  the  man  who  willingly  in- 
dulges in  pursuits  and  practices  that  he  believes 
to  be  wrong  no  harm  to  find  out  that  he  has  no 
real  faith-  The  same  may  be  said  of  the  man 


[48] 

who  does  not  make  reparation  that  is  possible 
for  transgressions.  But  there  is  no  excuse  or 
authority  for  such  a  man  allowing  the  devil  of 
shame,  or  the  fear  of  man's  ridicule,  preventing 
him  again  coming  to  the  Christ  for  the  cleansing 
that  must  precede  renewal  of  faith.  The  fatal 
apathy  into  which  so  many  such  victims  fall  is 
probably  the  most  fatal  malady  that  befalls 
humanity. 

So  I  must  end  where  I  began.  I  am  deter- 
mined, God  helping  me,  that  no  man  shall  rob 
me  of  my  faith.  I  won't  hide  it  away.  I  '11  keep 
it  right  around  with  me,  if  I  can.  I  will  see  it 
gets  exercise.  I  will  feed  it  all  I  can,  so  that  it 
shall  not  starve.  I  won't  force  it  if  I  can  avoid 
it,  and  make  it  weedy  and  weakling.  It  shall 
say  no  things  it  does  not  believe.  When  in  real 
danger,  if  I  can,  I  will  go  to  someone  stronger 
than  I  to  help  to  keep  it  safe.  But  when  that 
necessity  arises  to  whom  shall  I  look  for  help? 
Surely  directly  to  him  who  I  believe  gave  it  to 
me.  For  I  know  whom  I  have  trusted,  and  I  am 
persuaded  that  he  is  able  to  keep  it  against  that 
day. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

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on. 

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